1. Field
This invention relates to storage of items in a database, and in particular to storage with user-defined item categories and parameters to allow for extensible customized searching and retrieval.
2. Related Art
The Internet is a vast pool of information and data that, when manageable, is a very useful resource. However, data accessible via the Internet is stored following different standards, file types and layouts, thus finding relevant data is often difficult.
In searching for data and information on the Internet or on any network, users have two choices: first, one may use a keyword search that matches the user provided search terms to the terms present in a document. For example, one may enter a set of laptop specifications, and results returned would hopefully include laptops for sale, but may also include reviews of laptops or forum posts looking for laptops with those specifications.
Alternatively, one may use a specially designed interface that searches a particular website or database or other resource for specialized information. For example, if one were to visit a laptop website and fill in fields for memory, size, weight and hard drive capacity, laptops fitting those criteria would be returned as results. However, such specialized interfaces are only available on specialized websites and for certain products.
Thus, in general the quality of search results is negatively proportional to the amount and variety of data that can be searched.